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Thief Previews, Screens and Artworks

I read the RPS one a few minutes ago and it's hard to really make any kind of judgement in the controlled environment they were demoing it. I will say that making him more agile like Corvo makes me nervous as the whole point of the game is to be slow and stealthy, but right now it's hardly game breaking.
 
Derrick01 said:
I read the RPS one a few minutes ago and it's hard to really make any kind of judgement in the controlled environment they were demoing it. I will say that making him more agile like Corvo makes me nervous as the whole point of the game is to be slow and stealthy, but right now it's hardly game breaking.
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I'm glad that the focus is still on the act of stealing instead of mindless slaughter. I was afraid they were going to add "assassination missions" or some shit.

Honestly, I'm really liking what I'm reading so far but I cringed a bit on the third-person camera part. Hope they keep that at a minimum.
 
From RPS:

To be clear, the voice acting is well-executed, it just seems a terrible shame that the slang and accents that ran through The City as strongly as mortar and water are perhaps being dismissed as something allusive and on the level of footnote or in-joke. The language of Thief was as much a part of the atmosphere of the place, its credibility and otherworldiness, as the skyline or the shadow. To hear guards swear is not only crude in a linguistic sense, I find it confounding and it causes the sense of place, so immaculately crafted, to creak at the seams.
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So no more taffer?
 
RPS:

The view is astonishing, for its scale, detail and design. The City will be an open playground, with side missions to discover and loot to gather, and if this early glimpse is more than smoke and mirrors, a view that the freedom exhibited in the playthrough strongly supports, its creation will be a landmark achievement.
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Sounds promising. I'm all for an agile thief btw. If I was a thief, I'd damn well try to be as agile as possible.
 
Magic Mushroom said:
RPS:



Sounds promising. I'm all for an agile thief btw. If I was a thief, I'd damn well try to be as agile as possible.
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It's less about realism or what makes sense and more about making a good stealth game. If you can too easily dash or climb away after getting spotted then there's no risk in getting spotted, therefore it'd be a bad stealth game. I'm worried it's there for the dishonored crowd who don't want to play stealth at all and just dart around slicing everyone up.

Also the climbing could ruin it too. In dishonored if you get spotted you blink up to a roof and you're safe in almost all cases. The guards realize they can't get to you and then forget about you in 10 seconds.
 
It'd better have a FOV slider. I don't want to resort to editing ini files like in Metro 2033. That shit is unacceptable.
 
The Technomancer said:
The RPS preview sounds really good for the most part, but man I'm still pissed about them revoicing Garret.
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I'm ok with recasting, like Ironsides, but can't get behind this one. Garrett's sly narration really made these games for me back then. Sadly, I'll take any Thief I can get at this point.
 
Derrick01 said:
I read the RPS one a few minutes ago and it's hard to really make any kind of judgement in the controlled environment they were demoing it. I will say that making him more agile like Corvo makes me nervous as the whole point of the game is to be slow and stealthy, but right now it's hardly game breaking.
Click to expand...

Garrett was pretty agile already, I mean you could climb basically any object of a certain height and you could even bunnyhop in Thief 1
 
The game seems awesome, but visually it's pretty poor from a technical prespective, at least in still shots ( might be much better in movement ). Doesn't look next-gen at all.

Great concept art also, hope they release some more!
 
Derrick01 said:
It's less about realism or what makes sense and more about making a good stealth game. If you can too easily dash or climb away after getting spotted then there's no risk in getting spotted, therefore it'd be a bad stealth game. I'm worried it's there for the dishonored crowd who don't want to play stealth at all and just dart around slicing everyone up.

Also the climbing could ruin it too. In dishonored if you get spotted you blink up to a roof and you're safe in almost all cases. The guards realize they can't get to you and then forget about you in 10 seconds.
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From RPS:

but even in a demo level that is constructed to be a greatest hits compilation, Garrett spent most of his time crouching in the shadows, waiting, watching and sneaking between his unwitting marks.
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Whether the game requires this approach at times or is merely an alternative to agility-based stealth remains to be seen, but it's encouraging that the preview playthrough featured it rather than focusing solely on jumping and climbing.

This is massively dissapointing though:

To be clear, the voice acting is well-executed, it just seems a terrible shame that the slang and accents that ran through The City as strongly as mortar and water are perhaps being dismissed as something allusive and on the level of footnote or in-joke.
Click to expand...

For me, part of the joy of Thief was eavesdropping on entertaining conversations that gave the levels a sense of place in a larger world. They may evoke a new interesting personality to the City in this game, but it's a shame to say goodbye to the charm of the old one.
 
That RPS review is a nice read - effective use of language.

RPS said:
Black cords of ash and soot hang in the air like an oppressive net over the Victorian skyline and, later, flashes of lightning send white light dancing across individual raindrops and puddles, casting crazy shadows across the cobbles. Fog shifts like a living thing and all of it combines to make contrasting shapes of varied darkness and light that act as an ever-shifting patchwork obstacle course for Garrett, who can use any pool of darkness or obscurity as a vanishing point. Many of the technological tricks are striving for the same impact on design as the Dark Engine’s light sources did so many years ago, with the main difference being that we are apparently living in the distant future now. Everything that was shown was running on PC rather than one of the nextest generation consoles on which the game will also be released, and the effect was like seeing a bike soar down a street with its stabilisers removed.
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It actually sounds... promising?

RPS said:
It’s a beautiful, extraordinary place, this city, but is it recognisable as a version of The City? The weirdness, that not-quite steampunk ahistorical off-kilter sensibility, was lacking.
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RPS said:
To be clear, the voice acting is well-executed, it just seems a terrible shame that the slang and accents that ran through The City as strongly as mortar and water are perhaps being dismissed as something allusive and on the level of footnote or in-joke. The language of Thief was as much a part of the atmosphere of the place, its credibility and otherworldiness, as the skyline or the shadow.
Click to expand...

Hm.

Seems like some of the gameplay mechanics are potentially strong but that the game has problems with tone.
 
Those are some awful looking screenshots. Reading previews, I like that the speed has been incremented to Dishonored/Mirror's Edge levels. The old Thief games are as slow as molasses. Not sure about the focus combat thing, seems like a cop out to not having to develop a proper, fleshed out combat system, but we'll see. They say there's "regular" combat in there, but who knows what that is like right now.
 
I don't mind an agile Garrett. As long as he doesn't have Blink (Dishonored) equivalent powers or equipment, I think it's fine. But I do agree that slowing down his pace will increase the tension and will make the game more immersive, but it's too early to say anything.
 
Ugh, IGN says

During such sections – climbing walls, clinging to ledges – the game adopts a third-person perspective with Garrett negotiating his environment much like Nathan Drake or Desmond Miles.
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hope thats optional...
 
Two more screens I forgot

1365084539-1.jpg


1365084540-2.jpg
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As long as there aren't any scripted action or escape sequences I'll be content. It's so rewarding to finish a mission without a single npc notcing you're there. So please no alarms that are triggered when I pick up the the bronze medal I'm supposed to steal or some bullshit like that.
 
A lot of it can be summed up in a single scene: Garrett is on a rooftop in the midst of The City, on his way to break into a brothel called The House of Blossoms in pursuit of a nobleman wearing an expensive medallion, and in order to proceed on this path (others are available) he needs to bypass a couple of guards below him. Only problem: they're standing in a brightly lit doorway and one of them is facing outwards. Rather than waiting for them to move on, however, he does something awesome: he uses a rope to lower himself into the shadow behind the guard furthest from the door. What shadow? The dynamic shadow being cast by the lantern the guard is holding up in front of his chest. He then waits for the guards to move inside the door, follows slowly, and slips behind a stack of boxes to one side once they cross the threshold.
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From Eurogamer. Sounds great.
 
Metalmurphy said:
Ugh... why do the shots have that subnative look. Isn't this a next gen game?
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I know exactly what you mean. They looked like they've been upres'd and I'm surprised at the aliasing (which wouldn't have looked as bad if the screens didn't have that low resolution feel).

I guess this is what we get for first generation of next gen third party games.
 
It has a sort of grainy/gritty look to the overall art style sort of like the witcher games. I kinda dig it.

I played a little bit of Thief 3 but never really got heavily into it but I loved Dishonored so whether or not they borrow more of a play style like that vs the original thief games wouldn't matter much to me.
 
Zeliard said:
Yeah the dynamic shadowing sounds splendid. That's what stood out to me most from the RPS preview.
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What stood out to me the most from the RPS preview is that apparently if you don't make it to the brothel in time you can still get inside, its just become more difficult.
 
I see a water arrow!

Remachinate said:
From RPS:



Whether the game requires this approach at times or is merely an alternative to agility-based stealth remains to be seen, but it's encouraging that the preview playthrough featured it rather than focusing solely on jumping and climbing.

This is massively dissapointing though:



For me, part of the joy of Thief was eavesdropping on entertaining conversations that gave the levels a sense of place in a larger world. They may evoke a new interesting personality to the City in this game, but it's a shame to say goodbye to the charm of the old one.
Click to expand...

That's something that they could definitely be working on. The eavesdropping was definitely one of my favorite parts. All in all, I'm hopeful for now. The eavesdropping was definitely one of my favorite parts.
 
As always I won't get my hopes up, but it certainly sounds promising so far. Eidios Montreal have been saying the right things as well.
 
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